Word: shrilled
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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With all the shrill press coverage of the alleged moral damage caused by violent video games, it’s rather surprising how little attention has been paid to the more immediate physical hazards associated with gaming...
Through the chilled autumn air, a shrill, quasi-melodic screech pierces the rumbling din of cars, buses, and intermingled conversations that form the acoustic character of Harvard Square. The sound emanates from the two-stringed jinghu, a Chinese opera fiddle, played by Zhi Z. Zhou, who is in his early 60s. Sitting on a cold concrete planter outside the Harvard Coop, Zhou is sporting bleach-white K-Swiss sneakers, blue jeans, a crisp white button-up shirt, and a blue fall jacket. While playing, Zhou stares transfixed at his jinghu, only breaking his concentration to go to the bathroom...
...their plain wool sweaters, caring more for their pets than for their children, the Royal Family seems a parody of the pettiness and insularity of the English middle class. They might be the extended clan of Wallace and Gromit or cousins of Mrs. Proposition and Mrs. Conclusion, the shrill suburban housewives from Monty Python's Flying Circus. It's as if the Windsors want to prove that although they're worth billions and practically define the term "idle rich," they share the tatty taste and myopic world-view of Britain's petty bourgeoisie. The grocer and the schoolteacher can look...
...highbrow and no-brow humor, of university wit and pratfalling physicality, must have seemed strange enough to U.K. viewers. But for Americans there were extra layers of mystification: the BBC in-jokes, the references to Brit politicians and seaside resorts, the sight of grown men speaking in shrill voices and wearing women's clothing. (They'd dress as a madame a lot.) The insular Englishness of the enterprise made it, for us, something completely different. We loved the heedless risk, the show's musk of comic danger...
...Hammadi's eyes brimmed with tears as he related the story. Then, he turned. Hussein's sister was being told the news. She kneeled before an older man, who was speaking softly to her, his face drawn, his eyes tortured. She cried out, "Hussein! Hussein!" in a long, shrill lament. She held her head in her hands and began to pull at her hijab while screaming out her brother's name. A young man tried to help Hussein's sister to her feet, but she couldn't bear to stand. Small children began to cry, and one little girl...